New estimates suggest large increase in wetland impact of Route 460 project

Sunday

Nov 10, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PRINCE GEORGE - The new Route 460 could impact four times as many wetlands than previously estimated, a figure which some say may become a death knell for the entire project.U.S. Mobility Partners, the contractor working with the Virginia Department of

PRINCE GEORGE - The new Route 460 could impact four times as many wetlands than previously estimated, a figure which some say may become a death knell for the entire project.

U.S. Mobility Partners, the contractor working with the Virginia Department of Transportation on the Route 460 project, submitted an application Sept. 30 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The application seeks to obtain necessary permits to move the project forward.

Within that application, the estimated wetland impact was 479 acres. That is nearly four times the 129 acres of impacted wetlands estimated in the final 2008 environmental impact statement.

The new numbers were partially the reason why both the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have decided to open an additional environmental review of the project.

"If the project poses significant environmental impacts, then we have to do a full environmental review," said Kim Baggett, acting regulatory chief for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "Their [VDOT's] 400 some acres is a guesstimate at this point."

USACE will evaluate the results of that review in addition to public comments before making a decision about whether to grant the permit. Without the permit, VDOT could not work in wetlands or waters.

In a letter sent to the Federal Highway Administration, the Southern Environmental Law Center called on the federal agency to halt the project's design. The SELC is a regional nonprofit that represents partner groups on environmental issues.

"The proposed new Route 460, if built, would to the best of our knowledge represent the largest destruction of wetlands ever permitted in Virginia under the Clean Water Act," the SELC wrote in the letter.

Filling in and paving over wetlands destroys wildlife and bird habitat, degrades water quality, and would severely compromise the storm-prone area's natural resistance to storms and flooding, the SELC said in a press release.

"Some departments of transportation will never proceed without all the permits in hand. To spend this kind of money without having the permits first, I think is bad policy," said Trip Pollard, senior attorney with the SELC.

VDOT officials said that the contractor is advancing the design to support the permit process. The state agency also expects the permitting process to decrease the number of wetlands expected to be impacted.

"As part of the permit process, the contractor and VDOT will work with the Corp to constantly reduce wetland impacts," VDOT spokesperson Tamara Rollison wrote in an email. "The actual wetland impacts will be significantly less once design work is completed."

The USACE, which is required to explore less damaging alternatives, has not ruled out improving the existing U.S. Route 460 as a viable option.

In exploring this alternative, VDOT most recently proposed widening the existing highway from five lanes to eight. The eight-lane design was much different than a previous alternative design VDOT proposed, according to Baggett. The change in design became another driving force in the two federal agencies opening up an additional environmental review.

Widening the existing Route 460, according to VDOT, would be worse than building the new highway.

"Compared to the federally approved location [the proposed new Route 460], this footprint would cost significantly more, have the same or greater wetland and environmental impacts, displace more homes and businesses and reduce traffic flow between towns," Rollison wrote.

But the SELC disagrees, saying that VDOT has not looked deep enough at the existing Route 460.

"These wetlands have turned a terrible idea into a disastrous one," Pollard said. "One of our complaints is that VDOT has not adequately studied the existing Route 460. There is no need to build a new highway. We think Route 460 needs to be improved, but you don't need a new highway."

The higher wetland impact estimate was not due to a change in the scope of the 55-mile, tolled highway that is supposed to run parallel to the existing Route 460. It was because previous estimates were based on less accurate aerial images rather than on-the-ground analysis of affected land, VDOT officials said.

Rollison said taking aerial images was a nationally accepted practice when the draft environmental impact statement was being drawn up in 2005.

That has now changed.

"When the contractor applied for the permit in 2013, wetlands were measured through actual field observations obtained while walking the properties," Rollison wrote in an email.

VDOT also attributed the higher estimate on changing definitions of wetlands.

"As compared to 2005, larger areas now meet the criteria to be classified as wetlands," Rollison wrote.

But Baggett said that wetland criteria would not have had an effect on the wetland estimate.

"It [the changes in wetland criteria] is not intended to increase the number of wetlands we delineate. That should not have increased the number of wetland impacts for this project," Baggett said.

Regardless of the reasons behind the new numbers, the SELC believes that they could have the potential to kill the proposed Route 460 project.

"VDOT jumped the gun by signing a contract before it had the permits for this project, and is putting taxpayers and the environment at risk. What is really needed is to pull the plug on an expensive, unnecessary highway with unprecedented wetlands impacts," Pollard said in a press release.

The $1.4 billion highway, championed by Gov. Bob McDonnell, will connect U.S. Route 58 in Suffolk and I-295 in Prince George, linking the Port of Virginia to local interstates.

- Vanessa Remmers can be reached at 804-722-5155 or vremmers@progress-index.com.

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